May - a busy month : Part Two

As promised/threatened, a round-up of the 2nd half of May.

Great Cornard Parkrun - 16th May

I have been promising myself a trip to this parkrun for some time now - ever since I heard it was very flat and full of PB potential. Having gone over 20mins at my previous parkrun, I felt it would be nice to get back below again - and it's always good to try out a new course. It also offered that rarest of opportunities - to race without really feeling any pressure, since I had no previous time on the course to compete against, and I could just see how things went.

Whether or not it's a good idea to race twice in the same weekend is debatable - certainly if you want a decent result on a Sunday you don't want to go for broke the day before - so the ideal outcome, with Woodbridge 10km the day after, would be a reasonable time, a reasonable finish position, but for it to have felt reasonably comfortable throughout.

And if those were the criteria - I have to say it worked out perfectly. Not knowing any of the other runners, I had no idea who I should be running with - I've been caught out before at races settling in behind a fellow runner for the first kilometre or so before realising I haven't got a hope in hell of matching them! So I settled in behind the lead runner but made sure I checked my watch regularly to ensure I didn't go off too fast. In the event, I found I had to slow within the first kilometre to make sure I didn't take the lead -- not something I normally have to worry about! It was clearly not as competitive a field as most of the parkruns I've done, but I had no intention of leading the way when I didn't know the route, so I tucked in behind and determined to stay there, even if it meant sacrificing my time - from very early on, it was clear that I had a chance of winning a race here, for the first time ever!

The course, although it is basically two laps of a two-field course, is not particularly straightforward - the way is marked by cones but until you get to grips with it, you're relying on either the marshals or the runners in front to show you the way. Unfortunately, probably around about the kilometre mark, we went the wrong way! A marshal realised what had happened fairly quickly, and called us back - I would say (and the distance on the watch later on seems to confirm this) that we only went perhaps 70 or 80 metres before being redirected. This meant turning back the way we'd come, so effectively this added on another 160 metres or so to our final race distance (0.1 of a mile.)

Ah, elephants. So wise.

I think probably about 5 or 6 of us were affected, and of course when we rejoined the course a few of the next batch of runners had gone through, so I would say I rejoined in around 12th or 13th place. No matter - I had been running a bit slower than normal to stay in 2nd and so I was able, just by getting back up to normal speed, to gradually regain places. Funnily enough, I was still fairly confident at this stage that I could get back into contention for the win - and since the time now had become largely irrelevant, in some ways it actually helped. (That makes a lot more sense in my head than it appears to on the page.)

The course was indeed nice and flat - all on grass, but closely mown, and not at all difficult to run on. At one point we looped back on ourselves and so it was possible gauge the distance between me and the new leaders quite easily. And I found myself back up to 3rd place as we came past the start/finish area to start the second lap.

The two runners still ahead of me proved more difficult to catch, but there was still plenty of time left and I gradually gained on them over the next kilometre or so. I spent the last kilometre sitting just behind the leader, again not wanting to take over in case I went the wrong way, and then was able to get past him in the sprint finish. So my first ever race victory! The time wasn't particularly quick - 20m11 - but this was very much a race where I ran for position rather than time, and I have to say it was a good feeling!

Woodbridge 10km - 17th May

And so the next day, buoyed by this win, Charlotte and I set off for what turned out to be a very tough 10km race in Woodbridge. This two lap course provides a couple of nasty hills, and was a real test of strength as well as pace. I have to say I really enjoyed it - the crowds were fantastic: it sounds like a cliche you would see on a race poster but the whole town really does seem to turn out to cheer you on. Other than the big city races I've done, I've not experienced anything like it - and I can see now why it sells out  a matter of hours after entries open.

I think it sold out even quicker this year because it was part of the Suffolk GP series which I've talked about before. I push this series whenever I can with my running club colleagues, and in the event both our mens and ladies teams ran really well - taking us top of the club standings after the first 2 fixtures. Individually I was pretty pleased with 5th Suffolk Runner home in the MV40 category - the GP series is all scored on position, and that leaves me in 7th overall in my age category. Charlotte is doing better, currently 5th in the Female Open category, having hit a new PB at this race.

My time - 41m10 - was a marginal PB too, taking a few more seconds off my time from Colchester - but it was a much more challenging course, and relatively speaking it felt like a much stronger run. I still believe I should be closer to 40mins for the distance, and perhaps if I ran that strongly but on an easier course, I might just go under. Running, like so much in life, is all about ifs, buts and maybes! It's not that often that everything coincides at once - but the days when you feel good, the weather's favourable, you run well, and it happens to be on a PB course : well I suppose they're the days every runners dreams of - and they do happen, you just have to keep believing! What I particularly enjoyed about Woodbridge - afterwards, not during - was that the last 3 kilometres were my quickest: proof that my stamina and endurance has improved. I even managed an uphill sprint finish!

Sometimes, once you've finished a race, you remember it differently.
So it was good to find this picture, and confirm how hellish it really was

Saffron Walden 5km - Kevin Henry Fixture 2: 21st May

The second of this series of six, which always take place on a Thursday evening. It's always a different type of preparation for an evening race but I think I prefer it: time to have a decent meal 3 hours or so before, and my stomach is always much more settled than first thing in the morning, although the nerves still play their part in the final hour before the start.

This course - actually at Newport - is the most scenic of the six, but also probably the hardest. In the build-up we were all talking about two things.

Last minute course preparations - part one

Firstly there's the dreaded concrete hill  - a horrible section that completely destroys your pace somewhere between kilometres 3 and 4. This did indeed prove to be tough - but in fact, not as bad as I was anticipating. I always tackle hills in the same way following some good advice received early on in my running career - concentrate on maintaining effort rather than pace. It's obvious that the only way you would maintain pace when going up hill would be to work harder than you were on the flat. This means, when you get to the top, you're going to be exhausted, and find it much harder to maintain pace for the remainder of the race. It would be the equivalent - if there hadn't been a hill - of suddenly putting a sprint into the middle of your race. So instead, I try to keep my rhythm the same, my cadence the same, my breathing the same - hopefully by doing this my heartrate will also remain constant - and I just accept that I'll drop a bit of time. This way, even though I don't tend to catch people on hills, I find I can resume race pace fairly quickly on reaching the top, and I then tend to overtake people who have tired themselves out on the ascent. And of course, hilly courses don't have to destroy your overall time - because there'll be downhill sections too!

and part two....

Secondly, there was a warning, particularly to our quicker runners, to make sure you started fairly near the front - because otherwise there was a risk of getting hemmed in through a section that follows a narrow path with limited overtaking places. I wasn't sure if this advice applied to me but -ever the optimist - I thought I'd push through to start reasonably near the quickies. I did remember this section from the previous year - but in the event, the vegetation had been cut back to the point where there was actually plenty of room to get past people if you felt so inclined.

What I hadn't remembered was just how tough the start was - a long incline, albeit not particularly steep, but on a really bad surface, with potholes, ridges, loose stones -- in short, it was very hard to get off to a decent start, and I felt much more tired after kilometre one that I should have done according to my watch time. No matter, it was simply a question of accepting it's a tough course, and doing the best I could from that point on when - except for the aforementioned concrete hill - it does become a lot easier. I was trying to hold a little back for a decent finish, and after struggling a bit in that first kilometre I have to say I felt pretty comfortable for most of the race.

With just over a kilometre to go, I was joined by club colleague Craig, who has been improving steadily since joining the club and I suspect is no-where near his peak yet. We briefly discussed how the race was going - and it was clear we'd both had a similar tactic of trying to save something for the last part. Craig then pushed on, and I determined to keep him in sight - and by doing we both passed a fair few runners before rounding the final corner for the (uphill) sprint finish. At this point I knew I had enough left to gain some places, and with KH being all about finish position, I kicked for home, passing about a dozen runners in the process (I checked afterwards, in case I dreamt that bit, and it really was about 12 or 13 places gained,) The only runner I passed who then responded was Craig, who was clearly having none of it and went back past me just before the line. Chatting about the race afterwards in the pub, we both wondered if maybe we'd saved too much for the finish and should have pushed a little harder throughout the bulk of the race - we probably shouldn't have had that much energy left - but it is a nice feeling to finish strongly.

And in fact overall I feel pretty pleased with my run. After being disappointed with my placing at the first KH race at Impington in April, I was much more encouraged by this result, closer to hitting the top 50 (a long held aim!) and getting a time considerably quicker than last year in the process (1min23s better, to be precise!)

Great Cornard Parkrun - 23rd May

And so back to Great Cornard - having finally found a race I can win, I'm going to make the most of it! This week was a pacer event - I've talked about these before: they're a great way for people to achieve PBs, by doing their best to stick with the official pacer for their target time.

For me, the nearest pacer to my own time was the first one, running at 20mins. I knew that by keeping ahead of him, I'd beat my time from the previous week - and now that I had a better idea of the course, I felt confident enough to set out at the front and see what happened. This meant I could go for a time, not just position - and so I set off at about pb pace for the first kilometre, building a lead over the next group of runners, who were running with the 20 minute pacer.

I've never led a proper race from start to finish before, but I have done at club time trial on occasion, and it's not particularly easy! I think part of the problem is worrying that you'll look a proper idiot if you blow up part way through and everyone starts overtaking you - so it creates a pressure to maintain your original pace for as long as possible. In terms of time, this is a good thing - but in terms of enjoyment......well, suffice to say I found it tough! But the marshals at Great Cornard are all really nice, and very encouraging - so just as you begin to flag, there's always the next one pushing you on. Towards the end, the runner in 2nd place was definitely gaining on me - and I have to be honest, by this point I'd stopped caring about my time and was just keen to keep the lead, so I saved a little for the final section and was able to finish strongly for a time of 19m11 - a minute quicker than the previous week, and another win.

This is one of mine! Great to see volunteers of all ages

All parkruns are friendly events, and Great Cornard is no exception - I already have a few people that I have got to know there a little, and everyone's very welcoming. I like to move about and try different ones, but this is now a firm favourite. I've been back a couple more times in June, grabbing another win - albeit with a slightly slower time - and helping out as a volunteer last weekend. Parkrun only operates with volunteers, so it's important to pitch in from time to time. The organisation suggest you volunteer 3 times a year - in reality, whilst some people probably don't hit this quota, a great many people do a great deal more, with many of the same faces helping week in week out. I have set my own personal target of helping out roughly once every 5 visits, so it was high time I put my name forward - and I ended up being the photographer, which was quite a fun role to try. The pictures came out fine, although I don't think David Bailey has much to worry about.

Next blog

As I type, it's mid June - I've fallen somewhat behind with the blog due to pressures at work amongst other things! This leads to mammoth posts like this one - and I've had one or two comments from people suggesting they can be a little long! Not for the first time I'm going to promise to post shorter blogs but more regularly, since - whilst I'm keen to play catch up - I really want to get back to what the blog is supposed to be about - my thoughts on running, rather than just a write-up of my races.

That said, next up I'll concentrate on the Friday 5 series - I've already raced two of these, with the third this coming Friday - and in addition there's the most recent Kevin Henry fixture at Newmarket to report on.

But once I've got these out of the way, I really hope to talk some more about how I'm looking to adopt a much more structured approach to my training and racing, looking towards some key targets that I'm hoping to break in the second half of the year.

May - a busy month: Part One

This post was written before the weekend of 16th-17th May, but not published, since I hadn't added in the pictures in time. You wouldn't believe how long that bit takes. All just for an excuse to include a couple of bad jokes. Anyway, since to write a post covering the whole month would make things ridiculously long, I've decided to split May's racing into two parts. 


The races come thick and fast - well, hopefully fast - at this time of year. You could easily find a local race every weekend, and although I tend to avoid racing on the alternate weekends that my son stays over, there has still been plenty of opportunity to pull on the club vest over the last couple of weeks.

Nowton Parkrun - Saturday 2nd May

I always seem to go off too quick...

I mentioned two races in my last post - the second of which I found myself struggling in a bit due to a cold. This proved hard to shake off - probably because I kept trying to race! - and so I had an equally disappointing run a couple of days later, when I stupidly chose parkrun over a lie-in, and my string of sub 20min 5kms came to an end as a result. If it was going to end anywhere, it was always likely to be at Bury Parkrun, which I find tough, and so it proved, with a finish time of 20m12, Although I kept pace with the leaders for maybe half a kilometre or so, I then found myself being overtaken and dropping time throughout the remainder of the race.

One of my key targets this year is to break 40mins for a 10km. There is added incentive to do so since I need a qualifying time for the new Ipswich Twilight 5km race in August. This race requires you to have posted either a sub 20min 5km or a sub 40min 10km. Unfortunately, they don't accept parkruns or (unsurprisingly) club time trials - and so despite all the 5km races I've recently completed within the qualifying time, none of them can secure qualification. No matter - a sub 40min 10km should really be achievable, and to this end I entered 3 races in a row, the first of which was the Breckland 10km.

Breckland 10km - Monday 4th May

A race with plenty of PB potential - almost completely flat, just a very slight incline early on, which -being an out and back course - you feel the benefit of on the way back anyway. Exactly the kind of race I like - local, small-ish (a field of 284 runners) and scenic too: a road course, but through Thetford Forest.

Some marathon runners, and most ultra-runners, will always
stop at water stations, to ensure they actually get a proper drink -
but in a 10km race, the loss of even a few seconds is clearly
going to have a much bigger relative impact on your finish time.  

I set off a bit too quick, as usual, but quickly reigned myself in, with the aim of settling at around 4min km pace - but from about the 3rd km onwards, it was clear to me this wasn't going to happen. In fact, at the halfway point, finding breathing tough and dropping places, I decided I would actually stop and take a few seconds rest at the water station.
This had the benefit of allowing me to drink the water rather than just tip it all down my top as normal, and I started off again feeling much happier - although knowing that any chance of a PB, let alone a sub 40min, had well and truly gone.

As it was, I managed to pick things up a bit 2nd half, helped in part by the support of Neil, who I mentioned last blog had completed the London Marathon this year, against medical advice!  His wife, Christine, was the lead lady and Neil was supporting her along the route, using a bike to stop at strategic points, cheer her on and then cycle further down. On the way out, I was just ahead of Christine, and after she passed me at halfway, I then spent the 2nd half attempting to catch her back up - and so I got the benefit of Neil's encouragement throughout! In the end, she did achieve first lady - another trophy! - and I didn't quite catch her, but I did get pretty close to my PB (set roughly a year ago.)

As I mentioned last blog, it seems pathetic to moan about a simple cold - and it's just a question of being realistic about these things: it will have affected my time a bit, but compared to what loads of fellow runners go through, it's really no big deal, and there are always other races. And in fact, I didn't have to wait long: because a few days later, it was time to travel to Newmarket for one of my favourite events on the racing calender.

Newmarket Heath - Thursday 7th May

For the benefit of overseas readers who may not know, Newmarket is known as "The Home of Racing." As in, horse racing. Although billed as "approximately 6km", this is nearer 5.5km, all off-road, using in part the sandy/earthy tracks that the racehorses are trained on, with the rest mainly on grass, and a woodland section too,
Although a fair few club runners compete, notably a big contingent from Newmarket Joggers (who organise the race), there is a separate element of competition too - with a number of the town's racing stables putting together teams for the event. This was the 3rd year I'd entered - as it was for Charlotte, although in 2013 she hadn't yet joined the club, and so we'd not met. Last year we had just started dating, and it's nice this year as we start to revisit events we did together 12 months previously.

It proved to be one of my best ever races - a finish time over a minute quicker than last year, of 21m39: and according to my watch, an average pace of exactly 4 mins per km, which was bang on my target. This equates to a 20min 5km, which for a tough off-road race like this is really pleasing. The race commences with a long drag uphill, and I made the decision to take it easy on this part, and gradually build the pace, confident that I could make up lost time at the end, when there's a lovely downhill sprint finish.

A tough uphill start - I made sure I took it easy, and enjoyed
the experience of overtaking rather than being overtaken for
most of the remainder of the race.

Most pleasing of all was the way I did indeed manage to build my pace, with every kilometre quicker than the last - not something I've ever managed in a race before - and I really enjoyed the sprint finish, which saw me pick off 4 or 5 runners. According to my watch, I was running at 3m10 pace (per km) for the last half a kilometre, which suggests all those Tuesday speedwork sessions are helping.

Having done really well with our diet over the last few weeks, Charlotte and I decided it was about time we treated ourselves and, with an evening planned in front of the TV watching the election results come in (yes, we're really that exciting) we decided to grab a couple of pizzas on the way home, before stopping off to vote and then settling down for a nice night.

It was then just a question of waiting for the all-important results to come in - and Newmarket Joggers didn't let us down, declaring marginally before Houghton and Sunderland South. I finished in 21st place overall, 4th in my age category. Charlotte had a great run, knocking off over a minute too - and smashing her sub 27min target with a time of 26m04, placing her 13th female in what was a pretty competitive field. Christine, who I mentioned was 1st lady at Breckland, got another placing in this one - 3rd female - whilst her son Seb, who is a phenomenal runner, ran out overall winner. It's important to be optimistic as a runner, but equally, you have to be realistic about who you can take on. My guess is I won't be finishing ahead of Seb any time soon. To be honest, I was worn out just watching his warm up!

Colchester 10km - May 10th

And so it seemed that I was over the cold, and there's been no re-occurrence of the calf injury. So it's full steam ahead for the rest of the summer. I'm looking forward to getting back into a proper training regime, but for the moment there's barely time in between races.

Next up was a 10km in my home town. Billed as fast and flat, this represented another good chance of a PB and the sub 40min I'm looking for this year. I hadn't realised that the route actually takes in a fair bit of the 8 mile training route I did so often when I was back living in Colchester a year ago, and knowing the town so well meant there were no nasty surprises along the way.

However, for some reason - and it was a hot day, so I guess that may be partly to blame - I just wasn't quite right on the day. Worryingly, I had a small amount of groin pain throughout too, which makes me wonder if the old problem hasn't gone away after all - but I'm not sure it made too much difference and for the time being I'm just going to see how it goes - it may just have been a one-off.

I made a conscious decision to start off more sensibly than normal - this is a tactic I'm going to keep employing for the next few races to see if it works - and so for 2 or 3 kilometres I felt pretty relaxed, and was only a few seconds off sub 40min pace. The maths is easy for this target - 4 minute kilometres is bang on - and this is a pace I'm comfortably under at 5km, so it really shouldn't be so tough. However, when on the 4th kilometre I decided it was time to pick up the pace a bit, I found I couldn't manage it, and so I went through the half way point at 20m30.

Fairly recently, I hit upon the idea of having my watch set in both metric and imperial - so the readout for distance and pace on the main screen will be in kilometres, but the lap function is set to miles - meaning every time I complete a mile it comes up with how long it took. I find this helpful since I have run using imperial for so long that I have a much better sense of what represents a good pace. Effectively I suppose I'm saying that, even when I'm running a 5km or 10km, I still prefer to think in miles.

However, for this race, I forgot that I'd reset the lap function to kilometres - which I think I did for Breckland - and then, having raced Newmarket Heath, I'd switched the settings for distance and pace back to miles, so I could see my average paces etc. Having then forgotten to switch back (are you keeping up with this?) I now found myself, as I set off at Colchester, seeing everything back to front - my main screen showing pace and distance in miles, but with the laps coming up each kilometre.

Essential race kit?

I've spoken before about doing mental arithmetic during a race - it helps in some ways, since it keeps your mind off the fact that everything hurts! So in many ways, the fact the watch showed different information from normal was not a major problem. Except that, having done the maths beforehand for this race, I had decided exactly what pacing strategy I would use, and of course I'd done this in metric! Consequently, I had to try to convert pace from imperial to metric as I was going along, and this proved too much for my brain to cope with! But this is a mere detail - I can hardly blame my finish time on my watch settings!

Suffice to say, I had 3 targets as usual: Gold was sub 40min, Silver was sub 41min, and Bronze was a new PB - so anything under 41m50, set at Haver10 almost a year ago. Passing halfway in 20m30 - much the same as I did at Breckland - would have been fine if the tactic of going off slower had meant I had plenty left for the 2nd half - but in the event, I found it impossible to pick up the pace, and I finished in 41m14. So still a PB, which I probably should be happier about - but disappointing compared to where I thought I was.

The finish, on the running track used by the Colchester based running clubs, was a nice way to end the race though, and whilst I didn't quite have enough for a sprint, I did pick up a little bit of speed in front of a reasonably large group of spectators, including Charlotte (who I could hear cheering me on as soon as I joined the track) and Harry, who ran alongside me for the last 100metres or so. I was much happier about the result later on when I saw my placing - 38th out of 476, so not too shabby after all, in what is a fairly competitive field.

Time Trial - May 12th

Time trials are so close together at
the moment, there's little point
getting everything out of the boot in
between each one.
So I haven't bothered.

As organisers of the monthly time trial for our club, Charlotte and I were a little concerned that we may not get a good turnout this time, because we've had to change our schedule to accomodate the Kevin Henry series over the summer. So whereas time trial has traditionally always been the last Thursday of the month, we've now incorporated it into our Tuesday training schedule, and there was only a gap of 3 weeks between this one and the last. Coupled with the Kevin Henry races too, I wondered if people may feel there was a bit of 5km overkill at the moment! Fortunately, this fear proved unfounded, and we had over 50 runners, which was great to see. When you add in the volunteers - another 9 or 10 people - it's a decent turnout of club members each time, and - hopefully- an enjoyable evening for everyone involved.

As an added bonus for me personally, Charlotte is always happy to do the stopwatch, and so providing we have enough volunteers elsewhere, I now get the opportunity - after helping to get everything set up - to run each time. Which means this was the fourth time in a row I've been able to take part. I feel a bit guilty about this, so will probably take on a volunteer role next time - to be honest, I could probably do with a rest by then anyway!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, having run a PB at Colchester only 2 days before, I didn't manage to beat my time from last month. However, the new tactic of setting off more sensibly meant that it didn't feel anywhere near as hard as normal, and I was happy enough to get just under 19m30, although much like during the weekend's 10km, I felt unable to increase the pace when required in the 2nd half of the race, and so didn't get as close to 19mins as I might have liked. The groin pain was present but negligible - clearly I still need to get this sorted, but it hasn't returned to anywhere near the level it was before - at least, not yet - and I don't think it really affected my time.

How to improve?

I've talked about possibly racing too much at the moment, and not fitting in much training as a result. It's nonsensical to keep turning up to races expecting to be quicker than last time if you're not doing some targeted training in between. That said, I look at the 5km races as good training for the 10kms, and vice versa - even a slightly disappointing 5km is a decent speed session, and a 10km is a good tempo run! But I need to do more and, whilst my legs do need time to recover in between these races, there's no reason for not working other areas - and this is where the gym comes in. I've been 3 times this week, working on core strengthening exercises in the main, but always adding in a quick blast on the treadmill for good measure at the end of each session. 

I have a bad habit of returning to the gym for my exercise fix when I can't run, but then abandoning these important cross-training sessions when I can get back out on the roads training. I've actually worked out a training schedule which I shall attempt to follow throughout the remainder of the summer, leading towards the final KH of the season, and I have built in plenty of gym sessions which I shall do my best to follow! There's really no excuse now I'm working in an office with a gym downstairs, and I know the massive benefit that comes from improving my all-round strength

Next up - Woodbridge 10km, then Saffron Strider KH 5km

Two important races coming up then - the next fixture in the Suffolk GP series is this coming Sunday, and then the Thursday afterwards will  be the 2nd of the KH fixtures, at Saffron Walden. These are the races that matter most to me, since we're (hopefully) gathering points for the club. I don't hold out much hope for PBs in either, since Woodbridge is hillier than either Colchester or Breckland, and the Saffron Striders 5km, actually held at Newport, is quite tough too - including the dreaded "concrete hill" that KH regulars know all too well. However, due to the way the scoring works in both, position is more important than time, and the aim is always to beat as many runners in club vests as possible!

I may well sneak in a parkrun as well on Saturday morning - I'm trying to convince Charlotte that not only do we not require a lie-in, but that we should try a different course from normal, potentially the one at Great Cornard that seems to promise fast times. It's probably not a great idea to race twice in consecutive days, but I find I recover pretty quickly from a 5km, and I'm enjoying running every day at the moment - and the idea of having a free Saturday morning and NOT going along to parkrun just doesn't sit well with me! And I really want my 100 T-shirt - only 35 to go!

.


So the next blog will cover these next two races - and (spoiler alert) details of my first ever race victory, at Great Cornard Parkrun, followed by a successful defence this morning. Things seem to be back on track. More soon.

A tale of two 5Ks

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Well ok, not exactly - and quite why I've begun this week's blog in such a Dickensian fashion, I have no idea - but anyway, the point is, I've raced two 5kms since I last posted, and with contrasting results. The first was a club time trial, the second the opening fixture of the Kevin Henry Series.

Mental Preparation

Sometimes I stumble across a great joke whilst writing this blog.
Maybe next week....?

I've blogged before about the importance I place on being in the right place psychologically when I'm at the start line of a race. I think a lot about a race in the days building up to it - making sure I get my training right, trying to eat the right things, laying off the alcohol (usually!) and also looking at my previous results and trying to identify ways I can shave some time off. I look for factors that are clearly in my favour, things that suggest that I should definitely run quicker than last time. Whether or not I've been training well is a major factor, so too my (ever flucuating) weight, and also what the course and conditons will be like.

Turning up at the start line believing I'm going to run a PB time doesn't necessarily mean I will. But I know that believing I won't guarantees I won't. I've become much better at judging these things, and often now race with a goal in mind that isn't a PB, but is realistic based on circumstances. But it's nice when I approach a race, as I did last week, believing I can run my best yet.

Of course, club time trials are not official races as such, but I treat them as if they are. When I say that, I'm not too worried about position - it entirely depends on who else turns up as to whereabouts I finish. But I am bothered about my time. In Kevin Henry races, it's all about position - but there's no harm in trying for a decent time too - and of course, one should lead to the other anyway.

I often look at a 5km course I've run, and calculate what I may have got had it been flatter, or if it had been run on a better surface, or perhaps if it had been less congested. Most courses have some kind of "catch" - take, for example, the various parkrun courses I've run:

Parkruns - each one different

(list of excuses)

Nowton - Bury St Edmunds is entirely off-road, which I dislike, although I'm getting better at reducing the difference this makes to my time. It's a two lap course, and there's a slight incline near the start which seems twice as bad second time round - but I've learnt where to ease off and where to push, and my times have improved recently there. The surface was pretty bad over the winter but will get a lot easier, so my times there should hopefully come down.

High time I ran Colchester again

Colchester Castle  is very hilly, although again I have improved the way I've run the course over time. It's laps, with the start and finish in the same place - so therefore clearly there's as much downhill as uphill, although it doesn't always feel like it. I've become better at pushing hard on the downhill sections, and consequently my last run there was one of only two sub 19mins I'd managed at the time.

Thetford is nice and flat, about half on paths and half off-road - but the off-road section includes a grassy meadow which, over the winter, has been pretty muddy and tough to run on. Much like Bury, this will become easier now the better weather appears to have arrived, and I'm looking forward to trying it again soon.

Milton - Cambridge  is the course I ran my first few parkruns on. It's pretty narrow, and very popular - you need to push up towards the front at the start if you don't want to get held up, although obviously you need to make sure you don't get in the way of those faster than you. It's also twisty turny through the woods, but I set my old PB here back in December, and it remains a favourite.

Conditions were tough

Wimpole is a course I've only ever tried once, since Milton was snowed off. Since it's only just
down the road from Cambridge, it was also deep in snow - but judged less dangerous. However, it was pretty tough, especially the big hill - which would probably have destroyed my time even in good weather! Putting my foot through an icy puddle and into freezing cold water didn't help much either.


Worsley Woods, as I mentioned in my last blog, looked ideal for a PB, until I discovered 3 sets of steps in the middle of it, within a mile of woodland running that would also have had an impact on times.

Gunpowder - Harlow is a very straightforward, 2 lap course - but it's very open, and can be very windy. However, in terms of surface and lack of incline, it's got to be a PB course on the right day, and although it's a bit of a drive, I'd like to try it again sometime.

And this one definitely needs revisiting

Tredegar - Newport - I can't actually find any excuses for this one. Great surface, two laps but entirely flat - the only real catch is that it's about 5 hours drive away. Next time we stay with Charlotte's sister and her partner, I hope we'll visit this one again.

These could all sound like excuses - they're honestly not, it's just about working out how I've done each time, and whether the difference in time is down to me or the course/conditions. Which is important psychologically. Because if I know a particular course is tougher, I won't beat myself up when I don't get a PB - instead, I'll compare my performance with previous efforts at the same park. Which is why I got almost as much pleasure breaking 19m30 at Nowton recently as I did when I broke 19mins at Colchester and then Cambridge at the end of last year.

1ST RACE: 

Club Time Trial (Tuesday 21st April)

And the point of all this - our club time trial route has pretty much no catch whatsoever. There's a very slight incline within the first kilometre, but this usually helps reign me in a bit after going off a bit too fast - and it's an out and back course so you get the benefit as you're coming home, just when you need it in the last section. Other than that, completely flat throughout - and on a decent surface. So in other words - a definite PB course - and a true reflection of where you're at with your 5km running.


So, feeling confident, I set off at a more sensible pace than usual, and after about half a kilometre, with positions settling down, I found myself tucked in behind Mat and Trev - two of the club's quickest runners, and not people I would realistically expect to finish ahead of. So I was quite happy sitting in 3rd place, and I used them as unofficial pacers to try to get me round in a decent time. Although the gap inevitably grew as the race wore on, I wasn't too far behind for the first half, and I was probably most pleased with kilometres 2 and 3, when I made a conscious effort to keep relatively close behind them, and consequently held pace much better than usual.

The run as a whole reminded me of when I first went under 20 mins, back in April 2013. I remember that day feeling that I was pushing hard throughout the race, and being absolutely exhausted at the finish - and that's pretty much how you set a 5km PB - you have to accept it's probably going to be fairly unpleasant throughout! My first few parkruns at Milton were much the same - practically collapsing on the grass at the finish, and taking a fair while to get my breathing back to normal. I think a combination of factors has led to me not pushing myself as hard as I might for a long time - but I'm pleased to say I'm now back able to do this again, and enjoying the challenge it provides. And the feeling afterwards that you've given your all can't - in my opinion anyway - be bettered.

And so, having re-focused on speed-related training, and lost about 4 pounds since getting back on track with the diet again, I was able to turn out a decent run, including a push for the finish line - since with one kilometre left, a check of the watch told me I was on for a sub 19min time. In the end, I recorded 18m53 - 4 seconds off my PB and 11 seconds of my previous best on the course. So a successful run, and leaving me feeling full of confidence with the far more important KH fixture just round the corner.

2ND RACE: 

Impington 5km - Kevin Henry Fixture 1: Thurs 30th April

It's important to me that I run well throughout the forthcoming Kevin Henry Series, which I've mentioned often throughout my blog posts. A clear indication - not, as you may believe, that my blog is both boring and repetitive - no, it's a clear indication of the level of importance I attach to these races. For me, racing doesn't get any better than these club events.

After last year's series finished, I set myself twin targets for this year's races:

a) to try to get under 20mins for each one, and under 19mins for the quicker courses, and
b) hopefully by doing so, contribute points towards the HRC score by making the top 6 home for the club.

Since setting these targets, I've broken 19mins three times and so it seems a realistic prospect that I may do so again during the course of the series. Target b) seems much less likely, however, since the level of competition within the club has become much tougher. Two new members have joined, and immediately established themselves in the top 6 - and additionally, a couple of other runners have improved to the extent that top 6 this year now seems improbable. This doesn't particularly matter - of course, I'm competitive against fellow club members and know which ones I should be able to finish ahead of - but ideally we'd have 6 incredibly quick runners setting the lowest possible points tally, because that would be great for the club. The rest of us still earn a completion point for each race we finish, and in a sense it wouldn't bode well for the club if I did finish in a points scoring position, since I'm still some way off the quickest runners in the region, and it would suggest as a club we were some way behind the competition.

Looked horrible anyway......

Since the time trial, I have continued to stick rigidly to the diet (now 7 pounds lost) - this has included twice choosing a light option when eating out, turning down dessert too, and in addition
sticking to non-alcoholic drinks. It doesn't ruin a night out - which after all should be more about the company you're in rather than what you're consuming - but I'm not saying I've found it easy! The reward is what the scales say the next day - and hopefully the improved race times that follow.

I'd also completed a couple of decent speedwork training sessions to follow up my new PB, and so everything pointed towards a really good performance at Impington. Crucially, no re-occurrence of the troublesome calf injury - and absolutely no sign of any hip/groin related problems, which thankfully does now seem to be behind me. So of course, with everything looking good for a new PB - sod's law kicked in, and I picked up a cold.

I genuinely don't tend to take time off work ill - partly because in my current position, as in my last, I lose the day's pay. But also - genuinely - because I feel guilty for letting people down. I need to feel pretty lousy not to go in - but this was the position I found myself in Tuesday night after training, when I got home and felt really rough. A good night's sleep sometimes cures these things, but I woke in the morning feeling worse, and decided to call in sick and see if I could sleep it off. In fact, I ended up taking the Thursday off too - and two days of complete rest seemed to do the trick, since by the afternoon I was feeling almost back to normal, although I was still doing a passable impression of Louis Armstrong whenever I attempted to speak.

As a bonus, I managed to catch up on some important work for the club whilst lying in bed feeling sorry for myself - my duties as a committee member include keeping the club results up to date on the website, and so too the club all-time records: quite a few of these are being beaten at the moment, suggesting this is one of the most successful periods the club has known. Although time consuming, I do enjoy doing these tasks, allowing me as it does to keep up-to-date with how all my friends and club colleagues are getting on. I've also recently taken on responsibility for keeping the fixtures page on the website up-to-date too - and this took up most of Thursday morning, but alerted me to a number of local races I hadn't previously been aware of.

Last minute race-prep

Anyway, having decided Thursday afternoon that I would definitely be back into work the following day, I decided I could probably get round a 5km in one piece that evening, even though a PB now looked unlikely. The advice with running and colds tends to be that it's fine to run with a head cold, but if the problem extends to the chest, then best leave it. By this stage, I was merely a bit bunged up, so I didn't anticipate too many problems.

A PB course

Impington is totally flat, and on a good surface - as quick a 5km course as you could wish for. A number of club colleagues proved this by setting new PBs - not least Charlotte, who knocked a staggering 50secs off hers, hopefully giving her the confidence she needs to push on and have a great summer of racing. The club as a whole did fantastically well, and currently sit 2nd in the table after this first fixture - a combination of some great times near the front of the field and a huge club turnout of nearly 90 runners.

Such a great race series - I intend to blog separately about it some time (bet you can't wait for that one)

And my own run?  I set off a little way back from the front, and attempted to keep below 4min kms, which guarantees a sub 20mins finishing time. The first couple of kms were fine, but I then began to drop off the pace a little and felt much more breathless than usual, much as I'd anticipated I would. At the 4km marker I knew I just needed a semi-decent last push and I'd go under 20mins, which I did, with an as-yet unofficial time of 19m50: and I managed to catch a couple of runners before the line in the process - although whether this will affect the overall scoring remains to be seen - certainly I was no-where near the HRC top 6.

Did I mention I'd turned down TWO
desserts recently? This was the other one

But no matter, I'm sure I'd have gone quicker without the cold. And I'm relatively happy with the time anyway. I think, possibly given how hard I originally worked to get under the 20min barrier, I'll always consider that to be a decent time - and this extends the sub 20 run, meaning I've found consistency at long last with my 5km times - and I'll be hoping for another this morning when I leave in a few minutes for parkrun.


And of course it's important to keep things in perspective. I was really annoyed that my preparation for the race had been in vain - I'd turned down two desserts for goodness sake - but friends are currently going through far worse, and no doubt moaning considerably less about it all.

Friends such as club member, Paul, who would ordinarily be at these events, and who quietly goes about being very quick - he would certainly have made the scoring positions. Sadly, a few days ago, he suffered a stroke, and although there has been some improvement to his condition, he remains in hospital as I write. It was a nice touch that a couple of club members organised a shirt for all of us to sign after the race for him, and we all wish him the speediest of recoveries. I know of another fellow runner, Neil, who is suffering from cancer, and who planned to do the first few miles of this year's London Marathon for one last time - expecting to pull out just past Cutty Sark. Against all medical advice he completed the whole race! These guys are truly inspirational, and if I ever end up being half the runner they have been, I'll be very very happy.

And so onwards and upwards, as they say - in half an hour or so I'll be off to do another parkrun, but the next big race is this Bank Holiday Monday, a 10km at Breckland that promises another course with PB potential. The target for this is to go sub 40mins for the first time - a real benchmark time that was one of my main aims at the beginning of 2015. The cold has all but gone, so once again - no excuses!

Out but not Down

So I've finally stopped faffing about and decided to pull out of running this year's London Marathon. And despite feeling somewhat disappointed initially, it hasn't taken long for me to realise that not only was it in reality the only choice I could make, but I'm actually a lot happier for having made it. And it ended up being a pretty straightforward decision.

Those of you who read my last post may remember that I was going to use my two runs over the Easter weekend to allow me to work out what to do. The first of these was a local five mile race in Sudbury on Good Friday morning. The second was a planned long slow run on Easter Monday. Here's what happened....

Sudbury Five Mile

This went far better than I had any right to expect. I felt more nervous than usual as we congregated in the local sports centre prior to the race start, chatting to some friends from the Commando Runners, and also to the Haverhill RC contingent present. An albeit short warm-up run helped settle these nerves however, and I felt confident I would perform reasonably well as we made our way through the crowd to start fairly near the front of the pack. Always difficult to know how near the front to stand. Too near and you can easily go off too fast as you get carried away attempting to keep pace with the quick runners. Too far back and you may find yourself having to weave around fellow runners to maintain your desired pace.





For the first time since I began running,
I've paid for an official race photo. Not a bad
one for once. So don't worry about the
copyright bit. 

I started pretty near the front. And got carried away attempting to keep pace with the quick runners. Not for the first time! But in some ways, I can get away with this in a short race, since I would always try a quick first mile and try to hang on when running a 5km, and 5 miles isn't that much further. So mile 1 was 6m06, and I felt pretty good. The course begins with a short loop so that you run past the start again after a few minutes, and there is always a good crowd of spectators cheering you on, before you head off into the main part of the race.

Mile 2 was 6m23, and mile 3 was 6m34. So beginning to slow, not surprisingly, but through 3 miles in around 19mins, and at this point going well, although it did feel tough! As I began the 4th mile, which is the hardest part of the course, involving a long steady incline, I developed a stitch. This is not something I usually suffer from, and I suspect it was to do with a general lack of fitness which led to more laboured breathing than normal. I decided the way to deal with this was to slow the pace a little, allowing me to slow my breathing down - and so mile 4 took 7m02. At this point, I had stopped considering what my finish time might be, and just wanted to be able to finish without completely falling apart. One of my club colleagues, Mark, who has been a very consistent runner for all the time I've known him, went past me during mile 4, and I determined to at least try to keep him in sight as we moved into the final part of the race.

And fortunately, slowing a little seemed to do the trick, because I found a second wind, picked up the pace again, and finished strongly, with a final mile time of 6m11, giving me a finish time of 32m16. Which is only 6 secs outside a pb for the distance. How on earth that happened, given the lack of training recently, is beyond me. But it suggests that, if I can remain injury free for the summer, and get back into a decent training routine, then my times should continue to come down for the remainder of the year.

And talking of remaining injury free, the best news of all was that I got no reaction at all in my troublesome calf, boding well for my planned run a couple of days later.

Charlotte managed her usual trick of racing without a great deal of training and pulling a big PB out of the bag, so it was a nice start to the weekend.

Easter Monday Long Slow Run

I needed to run off some of this lot....

Ah, the Long Slow Run. How I hate this vital part of the marathon training schedule. But clearly very necessary, and having missed so many recently, it was crucial for me to try to get at least one more under my belt before the marathon. And I was toying with the idea of maybe even doing another the following weekend, even though by this stage I should really be entering the tapering part of the training schedule. But in the event, this all became academic because, after around 7 miles, the calf started to give me grief again - and I had to walk the last couple of miles back home, not for the first time recently.

So - for whatever reason - I can manage a short fast run but once I try to increase time on feet, the problem comes back. I am wondering if perhaps it's something to do with my running shoes, which I changed before Tarpley - it could potentially be that my insoles need renewing too. The reason I suspect this is because I race all my shorter distances in different shoes - lightweight racing flats. So the next test will be to dig out an older trusted pair of road shoes, go for a longish run in them, and see what happens. It will be annoying if I've wasted the best part of £100 on a pair of shoes that I need to bin after only doing about 50 miles in them - but, if they are the problem, then that's what I'll have to do.

I won't be troubling Kipsang this year 

And because I can't manage more than 7 miles without breaking down, then clearly I wouldn't get round a marathon. So an easy decision in the end to defer. I am not sure yet whether I will choose to run London next year, since I'm pretty convinced marathons aren't my thing, and if I dislike the type of training you need to do simply to get to the start line, it may not be worth the bother. In fact, if it was any other marathon, I doubt I'd even consider it next year - but it's London, and places are like gold-dust, so the fact I have guaranteed entry next year by virtue of deferring this year's place gives me a difficult decision to make. But in a sense, a nice position to be in - I can just decide nearer the time, and much will depend on how the remainder of this year goes. It may be that I manage to hit my targets for 10km, 5mile and 5km between now and January, in which case I could potentially be convinced to have another crack at a marathon. It will be interesting to see how I feel in two weeks time when I watch it on TV.

What's happened since?

And so it was time to re-focus on the type of running I really enjoy. I had already begun this process in the build-up to Sudbury, making use of the gym at work, but unfortunately the following week there was lots of work on, and I didn't really get proper lunch breaks. Probably not such a bad thing - it meant I gave the calf proper rest, and with a trip up to Manchester planned for the weekend, to spend some time with Charlotte's parents and attend a wedding, I began to wonder if there may be a chance to fit in a bit of Parkrun tourism on the Saturday morning.

Worsley Woods, a great location for a Parkrun

Parkrun tourism is when you visit a different course from your usual one, and it's something we did when we visited Charlotte's sister in Wales a few months back. Other than that, all my other parkruns have been fairly local, but on Saturday, Worsley Woods still became my 8th different location. It's nice to try out a new course, but obviously you lack the local knowledge of the other runners, and also you don't know who to try to keep pace with. I did manage to chat to a couple of people at the start, and ascertained that I would probably finish ahead of one but no-where near the other, who was gunning to beat his PB which already stood at 18mins. I checked afterwards, and was pleased to see, he managed it - he finished in 3rd, whereas I was back in 12th, so I'm glad I didn't attempt to keep up with him!

Personally, I was looking to record another sub 20min time, and in the event I was pretty happy with 19m30. The course looked to have PB potential, with the first and last mile being completely flat and on a good surface. An out and back course too, which psychologically I find much easier than the two laps that most parkruns tend to be. However, mile 2 was something of an unknown quantity, with 3 separate sets of steps as part of a woodland section, that promised to slow us all down a fair bit!

Shame about the steps though...

And that was exactly how the race panned out for me - I was quick for the first mile, slower for the second, but managed to pick up the pace again to run a sub 6min last mile. In terms of actual pace recorded by my watch, I was all over the place, but in terms of perceived effort, I would say I was pretty consistent throughout. In most 5kms I have a section - usually somewhere in the middle - when I feel like I'm slogging it out, almost plodding - before finding something for the last bit. But on this occasion, apart from maybe a half a minute or so after the third set of steps, I felt like I was running well throughout. The time - again, after not a great deal of training - was pleasing enough - it continues my run of sub 20 results, extending now to 13 (I ran bang on 20mins at Bury as part of this, but my watch said 19m59, so I'm counting it!)

Of course, no sooner had I got my breath back than I began to work out what difference the woodland section may have made to my time - because the next big race for me is the first 5km of the club league, which is a great course for PBs. Held at Impington, off road but on a good surface, basically two laps of a farm with absolutely no incline whatsoever. I don't know how much time the steps and woodland cost me, but I believe I can easily knock 30 seconds off to get back down to sub 19mins, which I managed twice towards the tail end of last year but not so far in 2015.

The reasons I've dropped some time recently, I believe, are three-fold.

Firstly, as I've well documented/moaned about previously, is the injury problem - and the associated loss of training time. I'm not too concerned about the calf now - it doesn't seem to cause me problems on shorter runs. On Tuesday I worked hard at club training, with no ill-effects, and last night (Thursday) I managed a 5 mile tempo run, again with no pain at all - although it does feel a little sore this morning.

Secondly, I haven't been so careful with diet recently, in fact probably not since Christmas - which may well tie in with why I've not improved my 5km time since the turn of the year. Having got down to 10.5 stone, I'm now back up to 11.5 - and so this week, Charlotte and I have recommenced following the weightwatchers points plan which worked so well for us before. Only a few days in, but so far so good. I use my desire to run quicker to help resist temptation when I'm feeling hungry, in particular remembering the calculation I heard somewhere (and I really ought to source these things before including them in my blogs...) that you will save 2 seconds per mile for every pound of weight you lose. Therefore, 1 pound lost = 6 seconds saved over the course of a 5km. Not a huge amount - although of course the shorter the race, the more important every second becomes - but if you consider I am now a stone heavier (again!) than when I set my PB, theoretically that's 1 minute 24 seconds right there. I'm not sure whether I can lose the extra stone in weight in time for Impington - to lose it that quickly would probably be unhealthy - but even just 5 pounds lost should equate to the half a minute I'm looking to find. In addition, it's not just carrying less weight around that's going to help, but the fact that I'm now eating more healthy food can only benefit my running too.

And lastly, the type of training that I have managed this year has been geared towards marathons, and so there's been more emphasis on distance and time on feet, and less on speed and interval work. Additionally, I've not managed to make many Tuesday sessions so far this year, which I know help me tremendously with my 5km times. We've now moved into our summer training schedule, which takes place at a running track rather than on the roads and paths near the leisure centre, and so the coaches are able to more accurately measure the reps we do.

This Tuesday, for example, we completed a tough but enjoyable session comprising the following:

Typical Speedwork Session

1 lap warm-up of the 400 metre track, followed by:

100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run
100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run


And I thought OUR track had a hill?!

200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run
100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run
100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run.

3 minutes rest

200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run
200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run
100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run
100 metres jog, 300 metres hard run
200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run
200 metres jog, 200 metres hard run

Unfortunately, our track is simply a grass field at a local school - and to make matters worse, it has an incline at about 250 metres until the end! However, we need to be realistic - Haverhill doesn't have a proper running track, so there's nothing the club can do about it. The facility is provided to the club for a nominal charge, and it allows us all to train together in one place, meaning newer members who may not be ready to complete a whole session can still come along and do what they can, without fear of getting left behind somewhere on a dimly lit industrial estate.

Charlotte and I live roughly half-way between Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds, where there is an asphalt athletics track, which we could use either through the leisure centre or by attending the club sessions run by either Bury Pacers or West Suffolk AC. I am tempted to try this out sometime, and have considered joining one of those two clubs to get the most out of their facilities - but even if I do, they will be my 2nd claim club, since I enjoy representing Haverhill RC and would feel disloyal moving elsewhere! (That said, I am re-considering my role on the committee following an amount of unpleasantness recently that I'd rather stay away from! No doubt it will blow over - I need to learn to step away when things become heated, rather than attempting to mediate, because I doubt I do much good, but I do end up (genuinely) losing sleep over these things!)

Last night's Training Run

I followed this up, after resting Wednesday, with an encouraging tempo run/interval session of my own. I set off without any clear understanding of what I wanted to do - except that I knew I wanted to push myself. Consequently I set off hard, and without checking my watch I decided I was probably running at close to 5km pace. On the route I was on, I have a choice - after a mile, I either turn left for a 5 mile loop or right for a 5km, and as I approached the junction I checked the pace to discover it was around 6m30. I probably should have turned right, but I decided to turn left see if I could hold the pace for the full 5 miles.

I couldn't. I should have turned right. My pace began to drop off by the end of mile 2, recording 6m40 and then 6m55 for mile 3 - although to be fair these are the toughest 2 miles of the loop, with a long steady incline. At this point, I didn't really feel I was achieving much, other than frustration that I was slowing. So I did the logical thing, and stopped. A five minute breather, and then a decision to turn the session into intervals - so I ran hard for another mile, at sub 5km pace, and then stopped again for a brief recovery, before putting in one more hard mile to get me home (5m45, which was surprisingly quick after 4 previous miles, albeit with a couple of rests.)

I got home pleased with the way the session had turned out in the end, knowing that in future doing the whole route as 1 mile reps would be a good training run, and one I'd enjoy much more than doing the whole thing as a tempo effort - although important I do these too, otherwise I'll be no good come race-day because my body will be expecting me to stop and rest every few minutes.

What's next?

Club time trial next Tuesday, and this month, with Charlotte in control of the stopwatch, I get to run. I could have run last month too, had it not been for an appointment with my consultant about my hip/groin problem - which I should say seems absolutely fine now. I'm not sure if it's because of the procedure, or whether it's gone of its own accord - and I may never know, but as long as it doesn't come back, then I guess it doesn't matter: and if it does, I know Mr Khanduja will be able to sort it. Back to time trial, and it will be interesting to see what difference the more speed-orientated training makes to my time, and so too whether the weight loss will help shave some more seconds off. We have a new race clock that we'll be using for the first time, and I love the idea of sprinting towards the line and looking up to see 18 something displayed!

More importantly though, I need to try and get sub 19min for the club at Impington at the end of this month, and time trial will be a good gauge of where I'm at. 

Getting over injury - preparing for The Sudbury 5

A shorter blog this week, as I look forward to my next race, and discover whether I will be able to run London this year.

Going slightly mad

A week of complete rest probably sounds like quite a nice idea to any non-runners reading this blog, but it drove me up the wall! The daily exercise fix is important to me for psychological reasons, as I've mentioned many times before - but in addition I have been extremely worried about how much fitness I will have lost over the last few weeks, when my running has been sporadic due to my calf injury.

So I was originally intending not to run at all until Good Friday, at the Sudbury 5 mile Fun Run.
My intention to rest completely has gone out of the window, which is no great surprise at all. But I was pretty well behaved - a whole week off before I decided this week that I'd start using the gym at work to test the leg and begin rebuilding my fitness.

I work in the Government Offices in Cambridge, and we are fortunate to have a well-equipped gymnasium on site which we can use any time the building itself is open. I never really take a lunch break, since we can eat at our desks and, whilst there's currently plenty of work to do, it's still fairly relaxed. However, I'm finding that breaking mid way through the day for an hour's workout is actually helping me remain more focused during the afternoon, and I've enjoyed getting my exercise fix each day this week. This is something I'm hoping to keep as part of my daily routine even when I'm back out running again, since I know cross-training and working on core strengthening is key to improving my short distance times.

And so Monday, Tuesday and yesterday

Plank Position - an excellent way to
test and improve your core strength

(Wednesday) I hit the gym. Albeit not particularly hard. Each session lasted around one hour, and I began with a warm-up on the exercise bike, of around 10 mins. I then moved on to the weights machines, doing 2 x 10 reps on the Chest Press, Shoulder Press and Leg Curl - all at a relatively low weight, since it's been a while (too long) since I did any regular gym work. I also spent 30 secs each day holding the plank position, an excellent way to judge the quality of your core strength, and judging by the amount I was shaking this suggests mine has definitely worsened, which is hardly surprising but something I need to target.
In addition I managed some abs crunches (3x10 reps) before finally hopping on the treadmill, to test the calf.

And with pleasing results...

Testing the Leg

So the idea behind doing some gymwork rather than continuing to rest this week has been for two reasons. The main reason has been to test the leg, and the results have been very encouraging.

Monday I tried 1.5 miles - the first nice and slow, and then half a mile sub 6min pace - and there was no reaction.

Tuesday I did much the same, but totalled 2 miles - holding the faster pace for the full mile this time, and again no problems. Oh, except that I felt completely exhausted. But the leg was fine.

Oh, ok. Fair enough I suppose

Wednesday I did a little bit more again - 2.5 miles in total, mile one at 9min pace, mile two at 8min pace, and then half a mile again at sub 6min pace. The leg, after a proper amount of rest this time, has been fine. The last two parkruns I attempted saw me experience discomfort from roughly halfway onwards, so the fact today I ran a mile further than that with no reaction at all suggests all is well -certainly, I have no doubt now I shall be able to complete the 5 mile race on Friday, which was a serious concern after my last parkrun.

Testing my Fitness

The reason for trying 6min mile pace was because this is approximately what I'd hope to do had I not been injured - and certainly where I should be at for my 5km pace. My PB for 5 miles averages at 6m26, and since then I've run around 19mins for 5km enough times to suggest I am capable of a quicker average pace. Probably not quite 6min mile pace yet, but certainly I'd hope to be around 6m15, with perhaps a sprint finish to take me under 31mins.

Testing myself a little quicker than that was intended to give me the confidence to push hard from the outset - but I am a little concerned as to how tired I felt after only a short distance at this quicker pace. Each day, the quicker pace has felt a little easier, which again is entirely to be expected as I begin to rebuild, but of course there hasn't really been anywhere near enough time to get back to where I need to be before Friday.

In fact, as with so much training, it's been as much about improving my mindset as it has about improving my body. I know that there is a delay between the training session and when your body is able to reap the benefits, so what I've done won't really make much difference to me physically on Friday - except that it won't be so much of a shock to the system when I set off at 6min pace at the start. More importantly though, I now know I should be able to run without pain, and I shall then draw on other positive reasoning to convince myself that I can race well.

Positive Thinking

So for example, my parkrun two weeks ago was the day after I broke down on a training run, and yet I recorded 20mins on a course I've always found tough.

Remembering my decent finish in 2013
will help spur me on this time around.

Last week's parkrun I experienced discomfort for all of the 2nd lap, and yet beat my course PB and got my best ever placing.
Both of these races came off the back of hardly any training.

These are all positives I can use at the start line on Friday, when I will be telling myself: 

Then:           I was able to get results I was pleased with despite injury, and with no training
Now:            I'm not feeling any pain, and have done some training (admittedly only a little)
Conclusion: It should go as well, if not better, relatively speaking, than the last two parkruns.

5 miles is not that much further than 5km, and so the tactic will be to push hard from the outset, and see if I can maintain something close to 5km pace throughout. There is an incline at mile 3, but nothing too tough, and then a steeper one within the last mile, but that's followed by a nice downhill stretch to finish. I remember finishing well in 2013 when I raced here, which is always a good feeling, even if I was disappointed with my overall time.

The Bigger Picture

....is the London Marathon, as I talked about in my last blog. On the assumption that the calf is fine after Friday, I then intend to try a long run on Monday - the bank holiday weekend has come at just the right time for me! In theory, this should be the last long effort before tapering, but I've missed so much training I'm just beginning to formulate a plan to overcome this - more next blog. But all entirely dependent on how Monday's run goes. If I can't manage at least 16, then I don't see the point of running London - I have no intention of doing so unless I'm confident I can manage the whole distance without walking, since if I end up run/walking it, even just for a part, this won't give me any pleasure whatsoever and I may as well defer.

However, if I can get to the stage where I'm confident I can run the whole thing, I think I probably will give it a go. I originally wanted a sub 4hr time, and then as training progressed well I realised I really should be aiming for 3hr30, or possibly even a bit quicker - but I'm now realistically going to very happy with the original 4hr target, and am prepared to accept even this will be very tough.

I really don't want to experience this for the 3rd marathon in a row

As I've written before, I've not lost sight of how lucky I am - possibly even how privileged I am, if that's not too grandiose a phrase - to have a place in the London Marathon, for the 2nd year in a row. Some runners try to get a place year after year with no joy. I am very aware that, if I were to defer, I may well then not bother with it next year, having concluded (not for the first time!) that I don't really enjoy marathon training. So I feel I really ought to run it if I can - and Friday's race and Monday's training run will almost certainly tell me what I need to know, and it will be a relief to make a decision one way or the other. Not just for me, but no doubt for you too - since it means I'll stop agonising about it in this blog time after time after time....

Tomorrow: the Sudbury Fun Run

I always think "fun run" suggests a less formal, less competitive event but in fact this is an extremely popular race with club runners as well as those running for charity, and is consquently well worth doing irrespective of which type of runner you are. A look at the results from the last couple of years suggests a PB would get me somewhere near the top 25, with the top 15 or so all getting sub 30mins, which is a magic barrier for the distance - averaging sub 6min miles. So plenty of quick runners to test myself against - and a real shame that I've not been able to put in the kind of structured training for the distance that I did before my last five miler at Hadleigh, where I set my current PB of 32m10.

Not many Haverhill RC members are racing here this year, but I know a fair few Commandos will be there, and it will be nice to catch up with them before and after.